Study of Authentic Leadership Change Effect in Mid-Major College Athletic Departments
Rachael C. Starr, Nick Williams

Abstract
The study investigated the capability of newly hired athletic directors to portray authentic leadership to their mid to high level employees. The four constructs of authentic leadership: self-awareness, relational transparency, internalized moral perspective, and balanced processing, as well change in leadership, were tested to examine employees’ perspectives of their athletic director. An online survey using the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) was sent to participants at intercollegiate athletic departments within the 5 mid-major athletic conferences of Division I, generating a population of 193 respondents. Mean scores for each participant were measured against the rank scale for each of the four ALQ constructs. Findings indicated that, overall, it is possible for recently hired (1-5 years) athletic directors to portray authentic leadership. The constructs of self-awareness and balanced processing presented slightly lower scores; however, their averages proved that employees believed their recently hired athletic director can express authentic leadership qualities.

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